Retail business executives are measured on customer experience, revenue and productivity. Retail IT executives are expected to lower TCO while being integral to addressing the most pressing retail issues; that being customer brand loyalty and creating an environment which delivers an excellent experience. The communications industry is driving new value in retail stores with what I call Retail Store 2.0 (RS 2.0). RS 2.0 addresses retail executive concerns including creating brand loyalty, delivering good to excellent service, lowing TCO, simplifying communications, and delivering improved visibility, security and control of communications. Bruce Mazza, Director of Branch Solutions and Leslie Levy, Senior Manager of Retail Solutions both from Avaya discuss value creation in retail and multi-site environments through Intelligent Store Architecture. If you’re seeking to deliver a better retail store experience and drive revenue up then you have to listen to this podcast.

Customers demand personalized and relevant brand interaction at every touch point be it on the web, call centers, online and particularly in-branch. The brand experience must flow consistently across these channels. Smart multi-channel retailers – especially those with traditional branch marketers like department stores, home improvement, retail banking services - even branch-delivered healthcare are realizing the value creation possible by investing in communications innovation of their core brick and mortar investments. This alignment of the customer experience across channels ensures consistently good customer interaction, increased productivity and ultimately - brand loyalty and increased revenues. Avaya’s Craig Wilson, Principle Business Communications consultant and Bruce Mazza, Intelligent Branch Solutions Manager join me to discuss discuss value creation within Branch Offices though intelligent communication solutions.

This is the year of the Branch Office. Business and IT leaders are re-distributing corporate assets and allocating significant investments in data center and branch office assets. There is strong business, economic, demographic and technical drivers’ shaping this trend. The IT industry has responded by offering many new network design options to business and IT leaders who seek to add value to their branch offices. In this podcast I discuss this global trend with Inbar Lasser-Raab Senior Director of Marketing for Enterprise Routing and Switching at Cisco as we dive into the details of Cisco’s latest branch office innovations. If adding value to your branch offices is a corporate initiative, then you need to listen to this podcast

Siemens Communications made the largest Unified Communications (UC) announcement of the year by launching OpenScape UC Server and a suite of UC applications. This is a huge software investment from Siemens taking one of, if not the, largest steps of any in the industry toward a software and services concern. Siemens is offering innovative UC software based upon open communications architecture while rooted in enterprise class voice communications capabilities. I discuss this announcement, industry dynamics, Siemens’ relationships with Microsoft, IBM et al with Siemens’ Mark Straton, SVP Global Marketing and Interpreet Singh, Director of Emerging Technologies. If you’re planning a UC project, then you have to listen to this podcast